Government Agency: United States. Department of Veterans Affairs; United States. Department of Veterans Affairs; United States. Department of Defense; United States. Department of Defense

Geographic:

Geographic Scope: United States Geographic Code: 1USA United States

Accession Number:

246450393

Full Text:

High rates of missing race data in Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA) records are a known problem. Our study used race information from
Medicare and the Department of Defense (DOD) to supplement VA race data.
We also examined the agreement in race between the three databases. We
found that adding Medicare improved race data substantially, while
adding DOD data was less significant. Most VA patients recorded as
African American or white were also recorded that way in Medicare and
DOD data. However, variation was found between the databases for other
minority patients. Results provide researchers with options for more
complete and consistent race data.